U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thursday announced the launch of a hotline that suspected illegal immigrants can call when they're detained, as well as a new system of paperwork intended to educate detainees.

The announcement comes after recent reports about U.S. citizens being deported and the Department of Homeland Security suspending an immigration enforcement agreement it had with Maricopa County in Arizona, after finding “discriminatory policing practices” within the office of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The new measures “ensure that individuals being held by state or local law enforcement on immigration detainers are properly notified about their potential removal from the country and are made aware of their rights,” according to ICE.

The hotline — 855-448-6903 — is for detainees who think they're U.S. citizens or are victims of a crime to report it to ICE.

“That's one of the things I find encouraging, that this seems to allow for those people to really make known that they are U.S. citizens,” said San Antonio immigration attorney Nancy Shivers. “I think the hotline's a great idea if it works.”

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Shivers said she had some concerns about whether detainees will have access to phones to call the hotline.

Many law enforcement agencies in the country have agreements with ICE under which they submit data about people they arrest to the feds. ICE can then ask those agencies to hold on to people ICE thinks may have violated immigration laws.

ICE on Thursday also announced that the form submitted to law enforcement agencies when ICE asks them to detain someone has changed. It now contains language asking the agency to give a copy to detainees, advising them of the hotline and telling them they can't be held for more than 48 hours.

The new policy also gives ICE the option to ask for the agencies to hold someone only after they are convicted of a crime. Shivers said in the past, immigrants in the country legally have been put into deportation proceedings because they were arrested and charged with, but not convicted of, a crime that could result in their removal from the U.S.

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“If you don't have a conviction then they don't have a basis with going forward with maybe a notice to appear (before an immigration judge) listing the reasons why you should be removed from the United States,” she said. “That could be different if someone's here illegally ... But there are a lot of people who have permanent residence or are (otherwise) in the country legally.”

A representative from ICE did not respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.